Authors Electric

This summer, I've been preparing my Echorium trilogy for the print on demand editions, following the reversion (for the third time) of print rights for the award-winning first title in the series SONG QUEST, which has been pretty much in print since its first publication in 1999. Here are the previous three editions: Element Books 1999 Chicken House 2001 Catnip 2012 Note the recurring ship-and-mermaid theme? Well, both the ship and mermaids are definitely part of the story - although I also have male 'merlee' in my books (I've always struggled with the idea of mermaids perpetuating the species without any males around... how does that work?) Three different publishers can't be wrong, so my covers would obviously need: Mermaid(s). Sea... and why not go underwater for a change? I also wanted my covers to suggest the series' epic fantasy element, and apparently that comes down to having one of three things: - sword - shield - dragon. Drag...

Part of the reason I've held off publishing print-on-demand paperbacks for so long was fear of the cover design process. Yes, I could have purchased such covers ready made, but the affordable premades out there - while undeniably beautiful - never seemed quite right for my books, and custom covers for my 12 backlist titles would require an outlay the size of my pension pot with no promise of earning it back... not a gamble I am willing to take! If you are on a budget, this is how I managed to produce the following paperback cover for my book I am the Great Horse for no financial outlay : I am the Great Horse - 2016 paperback cover I am assuming some familiarity with Createspace , so if you have not used the site before then see Susan Price's post on Createspace publishing . * UPDATE * Createspace is now part of Amazon's KDP . However, the process is very similar... The first thing you need to do is decide on your 'trim size' for the book (i.e. size of y...